UBC and SFU among schools with most sugar babies in Canada

DH Vancouver StaffFeb 18, 2016 2:43 pm

Vancouver is known for being an expensive city, and when you’re a student, it can seem next to impossible to survive here. That might explain why SFU and UBC both rank among the top schools in Canada for having high populations of sugar babies.

Sugar babies are primarily young people who seek relationships with wealthier (and often older) people who provide them with a monthly allowance. Seeking Arrangement, a website designed to connect people who are looking for sugar daddies or babies, ranked UBC as the ninth most popular school for sugar baby growth. SFU came in at number 15.

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Nearly 300 people on the site identify themselves as UBC students, with 56 new signups in 2015 alone. That represents growth of 21%. SFU, on the other hand, has seen growth of 11% over the past year, and has a total of 280 students on Seeking Arrangement.

“It has a lot to do with the cost of living in Vancouver, which is high, and especially when you’re in school, that’s difficult to build a life on a minimum wage job when you’re going to university and trying to afford housing,” Seeking Arrangement spokeswoman Brook Urick tells Vancity Buzz.

“So I think that a lot of people, as this lifestyle becomes more known and more accepted, people are joining it.”

In fact, the website claims over 150,000 Canadian students are on there seeking sugar daddies to offset school costs. The average sugar baby is 26 years old and receives $2,600 in monthly allowances from their sugar daddies.

“Times are tight. Money is sparse. Women are looking for a man to kind of take care of them and it’s not something that’s so wrong or unheard of and I think more women are just asking for it,” says Urek.

When asked if she believes whether there’s still stigma surrounding sugar daddy arrangements, Urek said she doesn’t believe they’re extraordinarily different from traditional relationships.

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“I think you need to take into consideration the fact that every romantic relationship eventually will involve finances, and this one is just a little bit more up front and honest about what exactly those are going to be.”

Founder and CEO of Seeking Arrangement Brandon Wade claims 25% of sugar babies in university come from low income families.

“With a Sugar Daddy, they are actually helping to close the wealth gap and afford an education,” he said in a statement.

For the record, the school with the highest growth in sugar babies was the University of Toronto, with 133 new signups to Seeking Arrangement in 2015.

DH Vancouver Staff

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